The Nile · Qalyubia
Delta Barrage
Nineteenth-century barrages on the Nile north of Cairo, where the Rosetta and Damietta branches divide, built to improve irrigation and navigation.
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The story
The Delta Barrage was built under Muhammad Ali to a design by the French engineer Mougel Bey, intermittently from 1833 to 1862 to improve irrigation and navigation along the Rosetta and Damietta branches of the Nile north of Cairo. At its first operation the foundations proved so poor that the main irrigation purpose had largely to be abandoned. After the British occupation, repairs in the 1880s delivered its original aim and the cotton crop doubled. In the 1930s it was decided to build a new Mohammed Ali Barrage, constructed between 1936 and 1939 and inaugurated in December 1939.
Good to know
- Construction continued intermittently from 1833 to 1862.
- The cotton crop doubled after the repairs of the 1880s.
- The new Mohammed Ali Barrage was built between 1936 and 1939.